My Website/Blog
http://www.gary-fell.co.uk/
What I Used
Modelling card & PVA wood glue with intaglio ink on Hahnemühle paper
What I Did
I cut a piece of modelling card to the required size. From my sketches of the forest I drew my image lightly on the card, then covering part of the card with PVA wood glue I pressed in an onion bag (string bag). When this had dried I took it back off (I only wanted the texture of the bag). I then scored in the trunk shapes peeling of the topmost layer of the modelling card. Where necessary adding more PVA wood glue, which I scratched through (sgraffitoed) texture to emulate grasses etc. When dried I sealed the edges with more PVA wood glue. After this last drying I inked up as you would an intaglio print – pushing the ink into the deeply scratched lines, I then wiped the excess from the plate/matrix.
I lay the plate/matrix face up onto the bed of the printing press, I then laid dampened Hahnemühle printing paper torn to size over followed by a sheet of tissue and then covered the whole bed with fine etching blankets. I then pulled the whole press bed containing the plate/matrix and paper through the printing press. On the other side of the bed I removed the blankets and tissue then pulled the print i.e. carefully lifted the paper to reveal the printed image.
Advice
- Give yourself permission to fail - after all if you make mistakes they are only experimental failures - you can and will learn from these experiments
- Give yourself permission to enjoy this
- Give yourself the time you need to play
- Above all have fun - be experimental - try something new each day
